Effective Java (Third Edition)

Book not only about Java

• Almost half of the book is about OOP in general
  • Present since 2001 (the first edition)
• With code examples specifically in Java

Key Items

• Item 1: Consider static factory methods instead of constructors
• Item 9: Prefer try-with-resources to try-finally
• Item 17: Minimize mutability
• Item 34: Use enums instead of int constants
• Item 50: Make defensive copies when needed
• Item 56: Write doc comments for all exposed API elements
• Item 62: Avoid strings where other types are more appropriate
• Item 71: Avoid unnecessary use of checked exceptions
• Item 73: Throw exceptions appropriate to the abstraction
• Item 77: Don’t ignore exceptions

Book Organization

The book contains 90 items in total, organized into 11 chapters.

Chapter	Items	Name	Java or generic?
1	N/A	Introduction	N/A
2	1—9	Creating and Destroying Objects	generic (mostly)
3	10—14	Methods Common to All Objects	Java-specific
4	15—25	Classes and Interfaces	generic
5	26—33	Generics	Java-specific
6	34—41	Enums and Annotations	Java-specific
7	42—48	Lambdas and Streams	Java-specific
8	49—56	Methods	generic
9	57—68	General Programming	generic
10	69—77	Exceptions	generic
11	78—84	Concurrency	generic (mostly)
12	85—90	Serialization	Java-specific